Number 76 carried Li Long on its back. Li Long held a rope tied to the plastic sheeting, with the bear and the roe deer on top.
Number 76 knew where the wooden cabin was, and it was eager to get there and escape the scent behind it that frightened it a little.
They made good time on the return trip, much faster than on the way out. Even so, by the time Li Long reached the wooden cabin, the sun was already over the western mountaintop and soon sank below it.
To Li Long's surprise, someone was waiting outside the wooden cabin. It was Jade Mountain River.
"You shot... what?" Jade Mountain River's horse was tethered nearby. He looked at the half-exposed bear on the plastic sheeting, curious at first, then startled once he had a good look.
"You shot a bear? Is this a brown bear?"
"Yes." Li Long dismounted and tethered Number 76 beside the other horse, then said proudly:
"I went to the hot spring to hunt roe deer. I wounded one, and it ran to a place where a bear was hibernating. Then I shot the bear."
He made it sound easy. Of course, if one disregarded Li Long's psychological reactions, the whole process really had been easy and efficient, objectively speaking.
But in fact, in those few short minutes, Li Long felt he had truly faced life and death.
Facing death once could make a person grow up faster. Li Long felt that really did seem to be true. Thinking now of that bear's head right in front of him, its mouth wide open, ready to bite off half his head the very next moment, he felt he needed to be even more careful in the future. Life was precious!
"That's impressive!" Jade Mountain